LIM Guan Eng has found an unlikely ally in Umno minister Nazri Azri, who said the Penang chief minister should not resign over the Tanjung Bungah landslide because similar tragedies in the past did not lead to other ministers quitting.

The tourism and culture minister said there was no precedent of ministers resigning when a natural disaster occurred, and Saturday’s landslide at a construction site in Penang was no exception. 

“Other ministers in the past didn’t resign.

“During the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide, the ministers at that time also didn’t resign.

“So, the ‘rules’ must be applied to all, not selectively,” he said in Shah Alam today after launching the cartoon characters Upin and Ipin as Malaysian tourism ambassadors.

Bukit Antarabangsa, an affluent suburb built on a hill just outside Kuala Lumpur, was the scene of a devastating landslide on December 6, 2008, that killed five people, destroyed 14 bungalows and affected the homes of 5,000 people.

The Star reported that Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar had challenged DAP’s Lim Kit Siang to tell Guan Eng to resign over the tragedy, which killed 11 construction workers. 

Local authorities have ordered a halt to the construction of the 50-storey low-cost housing project.

The state government has also blacklisted companies and consultants involved in the development until a panel appointed to investigate the landslide completed its report. – October 26, 2017.